Posts Tagged ‘blog’

Making Great Blog Titles for SEO Requirements

Webmasters and copywriters are constantly facing one particular problem – how to create and publish content that is helpful for human users and at the same time complies with SEO requirements including optimized blog titles. No wonder that the majority of copywriters and web content creators hate SEO since often it hampers the process of content creating. Writing texts which are helpful for users is not enough these days. It is possible that you have the best blog or site in a particular niche; however, it makes no sense unless it gets traffic. In other words, in compliance with SEO rules will bury any site, keeping it out of Google 100 (as known, to get a sufficient amount of traffic it is important to rank in TOP-20). And Great Blog Titles are a overlooked and easy way to improve Google ranking performance. A great resource for more information about optimizing blog titles is here

SEO and Good Blog Content Are a Match Made In Heaven

SEO rules concern any blog posts and their parts, including titles. Yes, by writing non-optimized titles in terms of SEO, copywriters may decrease website’s chances of getting high search engine rankings. A title is an extremely important part of a blog post. Firstly, it grabs attention of potential visitors and customers and well as plays a great SEO role. Search engines use titles and keywords contained in titles to rank sites. Besides, a site title is what you see in search engines results.

Although a title is the shortest part of a blog post, it is imperative to follow certain title writing rules and norms. As already said above, a title has a dual role, i.e. helps both visitors and search engines. Listed below are 5 hot tips on how to write SEO optimized blog titles.

1. Write short blog titles.

Of course, we do not mean 1-2 words here. The best title length is about 60-70 characters. Writing longer titles is not recommended for two reasons. Firstly, search engines like Google cut down longer titles anyway. Secondly, long titles are more difficult to read for visitors. Thus, a long title is ineffective both in terms of SEO and readability. Just check the number of characters before posting the text. Of course, sometimes it is difficult to create a short and catchy title, so, think of the ways to convey the key idea with several words.

2. Identify your keywords for Google.

Perhaps, all experts would agree that using primary keywords in titles is a must. So, make sure you have primary keywords in the title. Moreover, it is recommended to use them at the beginning of the title or in the middle to help search engines index the new webpage and give Google a clue on what primary keywords for the webpage are. For instance, if you have a title consisting of 6 words, make sure the first ones are your keywords. Of course, it is imperative to avoid keyword stuffing since this will not only negatively affect readability of the title, but also may cause sanctions from Google (which are crazy these days, especially after Panda and Penguin). You are probably well-acquainted with these recent updates. Make sure to use relevant keywords!

3. Write descriptive and “catchy” titles.

Well, forget about SEO for a while and focus on creating quality content for website visitors. Blog titles should be informative and descriptive. In other words, having read the title, visitors should have an idea on what the blog post is all about. A title should grab attention and be compelling to read on. At the same time, do not fool your readers. Yes, you may write a title that will look like a newspaper screamer, i.e. truly sensational. However, when visitors find out that the blog post itself does not contain promised info or tips, they will hardly return to our blog.

4. Write original titles (No Cheating… Google will know!).

This may sound obvious for lots of webmasters and copywriters; however, duplicate content is a common problem. Make sure you create unique titles for each blog post. Sure, sometimes, involuntarily, we create duplicate contents. At the same time, it is possible to use online plagiarism detection tools to make sure the content is 100% original. As known, search engines may penalize sites for posting duplicate contents. Falling into Google’s disgrace might take a few minutes, while even experienced webmasters may need months to get the site back to top 10. So, be particularly careful with uniqueness of titles, since such mistakes can be too costly.

5. Writing for search engines is writing for people (No duh!).

Perhaps, you have met bloggers who claim they write for people, not search engines. However, it should be said that writing for search engines is writing for people since if you comply with the above mentioned rules. There is nothing wrong in creating short, catchy titles that contain targeted keywords. Why not take advantage of own or somebody else’s SEO experience and write titles that your visitors and search engines will like. You may like it or not, but we all play by these Google Panda rules. The aim of all search engines is to deliver helpful and relevant search results.

Our partner, Strategic Essentials, provides comprehensive organizational development training and consulting through the unique Leadership Management International, Inc. (LMI) Strategic Development Process ™. This is training that has really led to our success and continues to add value to our bottom line.

No One Succeeds Alone

In our many years in the marketing business in and around the Reno area, we have learned that success comes easiest when you surround yourself with like minded business partners /alliances which strengthen all parties involved.

Our Partner – Strategic Essentials

We have several local businesses that we partner with to help us continue to grow; they keep our wits sharp and our skills up to date. Learning is an ongoing and ever productive part of life and business. As marketing professionals and designers, our expertise may not have always been in managing and running the business side of things. We learned some hard lessons, before we realized that if someone else excels at these things, why not learn from them? That’s where Valerie Cardenas, owner of Strategic Essentials, came in and improved the way we were running our business, ultimately helping us to define our success.

If you are finding that some of your entrepreneurial hats fit better than others, call Strategic Essentials to discuss “What Matters Most” for your organizations development. They will custom tailor your plan with measurable goals and a timeline for improvement. Ensure that employees (and yourself) are successful in navigating all areas of your organization with this award winning development program.

Since partnering with Strategic Essentials, our business has benefited from improved sales procedures, productivity across the team, clarity of business goals, team morale, cash flow, and an increase in billable hours. We have also been able to streamline our invoicing and estimating processes. Learn how you can make your team more efficient and productive while creating a results-based, goal-oriented culture focused on “What Matters Most” for your organization.

Pinterest is a pinboard-style social photo sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections such as events, interests, hobbies, and more. Users can browse other pinboards for inspiration, ‘re-pin’ images to their own collections and/or ‘like’ photos. Pinterest’s mission is to “connect everyone in the world through the ‘things’ they find interesting” via a global platform of inspiration and idea sharing. It is one of the “fastest growing social services in the world.”

Make your Content Visual

The brilliance behind this new social network is that it only works with visual posts or content– photos and videos. We often fail to realize that we have the ability to change our content into visual posts by using word art, pictures to say the same thing, or creating an image that includes the words we want to convey.

Why would we want visual content rather than just plain text?

Because we are human beings – we want things to be pretty and interesting, we want to be surprised and engaged, we crave something new to share with the world (or our part of it) and most of all – we want to express ourselves; this new social network is just one more way to do this. Sharing (or pinning as Pinterest calls it) allows us to show the world things we find interesting and connect with others who share the same opinions and interests. Visual posts on social media sites go viral more often, last longer, and have more shares than plain text or links – period. Pictures and videos are the mediums we crave; they frequently move us and inspire sharing visual posts with our friends, especially on this new social network, Pinterest.

How can I get on Pinterest?

This new social network has made their site an invitation only affair. This may at first make you think they are trying to limit the number of people adopting their social network – but it is very similar to “friending” someone on Facebook. You just need an in with someone who is already on Pinterest (chances are, one of your current Facebook friends is already on this new social platform and excited to extend you an invite – just ask).

If you are interested in more about this new social network, or visual posts on other networks, drop us a line at 775-322-3663 and we can chat about it or send you an invite to join in the pinning fun. Go, be social; share what moves and inspires you.

Successful Strategies for Email Marketing

If you don’t have a plan, then how will you know that you are getting the results you really want from your email marketing? You need to know where you are heading and how you are going to get there in order to set up targets to aim for with each email marketing campaign. A roadmap to your email marketing will help you to decide what needs to be changed in order to make your efforts more effective.

7 considerations while you are setting up your strategy:

You are only as good as your list.(see our 3 ways to increase the quality of your email database, below)

Mobile devices are on the rise and more and more people are using their mobile devices to view their emails – including yours. So make it easy for them to see, read, click, and integrated for quick and easy social media sharing to be ahead of the pack.

Keep your call to action ABOVE THE FOLD – or up to 70% of your audience may never see it.

Mix up your email marketing with a direct mailing campaign to increase your response rate to the overall campaign.

Promotions that are limited in time or availability always increase response rates.

Link your email broadcasts to online interactions or call to actions – even if it is just a landing page where they can get more information (make sure your website works in mobile too if you are going to do this).

Incentive focused subject lines are a great way to increase open rates as well – just remember not to use words like “free” since they often trigger the spam filter in email accounts.

3 Ways to Increase the Quality of your Email database

Reward your opt-ins with a bonus or freebie (by AR) of something YOU can offer for signing up with you (this helps you make sure the things you offer are things your database are interested in receiving).

Measure the activity of your list over time and send out updates or special AR’s for those who have been inactive to keep your database filled with real contacts that are interested in your services or products.

Integrate your opt-in with social media so that it is easy to share to others and your offerings get more awareness and notice across platforms and the holy ‘share’ to others who may be interested in signing up with you.

These tips and best practices can change your email marketing efforts into ordered, cohesive campaigns. Metrics and tracking will define adjustments needed to your methods and drive continuous improvement on successive campaigns until you are effectively utilizing email marketing to further your business.

Call us today if you’d like help with your specific email marketing needs – we can help! 775-322-3663

Almost everyone in America knows what YouTube is and that you can find almost anything on it to entertain yourself. What you may not know is that it is becoming the new search tool of the Millennials (Generation Z); rather than words, they want video answers to their questions.

Why Video Marketing?

If we think about our past, it isn’t surprising that we are drawn to the visual relay of information – a picture paints 1000 words, right? So a video must communicate a million, easy. It is one of the fastest ways to share and ingest pieces of information between human beings. It’s why commercials cost more than other forms of advertising. Technology has allowed each of us to share our own personal cave wall art with everyone in the world who has access to the internet. What IS surprising is that although this powerful medium has become advanced enough that you can make a video from your phone and post it online in mere minutes; there are few businesses that have truly committed to using it to its full potential.

It’s Easy to Use

It is an amazing time to be a business – especially a tech-savvy one! If you have a marketing department or an advertising agency that is already creating fantastic commercial quality videos for your company, feel free to repurpose them and upload them to a company YouTube channel or a Vimeo account, which both offer easy sharing options to social media platforms. If you don’t have access to commercially produced video footage, there are dozens of options for video recorders that are relatively inexpensive, simple to use, and a breeze to upload.

How do I make it Effective?

If you are making the video, or you have the ability to give direction to those who are, remember that online there are many distractions and it is important to grab your audience’s attention immediately and then keep them watching your ad. Recent research, by Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Thales S. Teixeira, shows that the best attention capture is achieved when there is:

… a quick element of surprise at the beginning of an ad, followed by a longer period of joy…

Now that you know the formula, you can get busy making surprising, joyful videos that capture the attention of your audience. Just remember it is always important to be authentic and real about your product or service, even while you make viewers feel good.

If you would like some help in your video marketing endeavors, feel free to call us at 775-322-3663 today.

Inbound linking or backlinks alert search engines to the popularity of your website or blog post. The more popular your site (more inbound links), the higher your ranking on search engine results pages.

Not All Links are Equal

There are many websites out there and whom you link from can affect the way a search engine looks at you and your content. Make sure you are being linked through websites that will help, not harm, your reputation (and your ranking).

Beneficial Links

High quality links are beneficial for any website. They link from relevant content on one website to relevant content on your website. The more often this sort of endorsement happens from trusted sites to yours, the better your websites rank.

Harmful Links

Harmful linking happens when irrelevant or “spammy” websites are linking to your relevant non-spammy website. These links can cause search engines to lower your ranking as a sort of “guilt by association”. This is partially to keep link spammers away from well meaning searches for real content. It is also why when you set up outbound links on your site that you keep them to relevant websites – otherwise, you are hurting that sites ranking – which they won’t take kindly.

Getting the Right Links

Getting the right links can increase traffic to your website (sometimes in a major way), which can increase sales or exposure and awareness at the least. If you aren’t link savvy, don’t worry, we can help!

We can train you to build your own relevant, high-quality inbound links, if you want to do it yourself, or we can build the links for you (we know you have lots going on). All our services are customized to your business needs and resources – we will work within your budget, too.

We also have some free tools to help you get started! We are available by phone as well at 775-322-3663.

You need a code update – what does this mean?

If you have had your website for longer than a few years (or if your website developer used old school coding), you might be using an outdated website. This means that, like everything else in the technology world, you have what amounts to the first iPhone created, rather than the new, fancy, updated functionality of the iPhone 4S.

Why should you care?

1. Security

We all hear about computer viruses and how they usually are generated online and then somehow end up downloaded onto your computers desktop or laptop, wreaking havoc and costly repair bills. If you are a business, you are even more of a target for these hackers. You want to protect your customers (even more so if they are buying off your site itself), and your business from these threats. Each time a content management system is updated, much like your operating system on your computer, it almost always comes with an update for security reasons. These include patches where they have found holes or back doors into the system – meaning your website. It is important to keep up on these updates, but sometimes they can be confusing or cause other issues on the website – that is why it is extremely important to have someone maintaining your website and updating the firewalls and security settings on your platforms to keep you and your customers safe.

2. Search Results

If you want to be found, read on.

Online activity has evolved, it has become more social, and more and more websites are being published daily. This means that the little search engines we talk about, like Google, have more and more information to ‘crawl’ and find. If your website is not updated regularly, it can lose search ranking just because nothing on it is considered relevant due to time stamping and refreshing of the content. Having fantastic content is great – but only useful if your target audience can find you.

3. Reduce glitches on your website

As stated earlier, the codes used to write and develop websites are technology driven, so they are not static, but dynamic in nature. As more websites are created and the way we as users engage with those websites changes, there are different things that need to be updated on your website to keep it working at it’s best. In the last few years, great leaps have been made with CSS3 and HTML5 which means that the coding on your website (although unseen by most) can be set out in a more simple manner to alleviate the bugs that earlier coding work arounds might be causing.

Besides that – these new coding versions have made it so that the website can be laid out in new and aesthetically pleasing ways so that you have a site that people enjoy looking at, rather than come away feeling that they need to visit the opthalmologist.

4. Increase Functionality

So maybe you love your website design and maybe you haven’t had any issues with glitches. Maybe you are also super socially savvy and have installed a blog to work around the time stamps (a great idea – good for you!). Does your website allow you to post a podcast? Does it have social buttons (the ones that link to your company profiles on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn – if you don’t have these profiles, click here – we can help)? Do you have the ability to easily embed a YouTube video onto your website? Do you have a blog installed? Do you have the ability to share to social media from your blog? There are lots of new functionality items that can be added to your website now, that were never imagined before.

If you aren’t sure if you need a coding update, call us – we’d love to peek behind your website’s curtain and tell you how the insides are working, or where improvements can be made. Contact us at 775-322-3663 today!

Tired of your company website?

Is your company website boring even to you? People are more and more obsessed with flashy, bright, shiny objects and websites are no different. Yes, you will need to have killer content on your website that is easy to understand and explains your product or services in a way that will make anyone want to buy it, but first – you have to get their attention – and in a positive way.

A Website is an Experience

As you browse through a site, you experience layout, colors, fonts, photographs, and content until you begin to feel a certain way. Of course, when it comes to your customers, you want that ‘certain way’ to be a positive one, one that converts to sales. Creating those positive experiences through design is what our team does best.

Remodelling: Ideas and Considerations

If you were to think about your website as the large billboard that everyone will see as they sit in a movie theatre and wait for their film to start – what would you want them to see? I use the theatre example because, in this instance, you have a somewhat captive audience and the time frame is relatively lengthy. Your website IS a marketing piece and it should fit with your branding as well as your vision and mission for the company.

However, you want more than a brochure or a static, unchanging picture as your website – you want to engage the audience and make them feel that you are right there with them. This can be done with a custom layout that makes finding information for your users simple and almost automatic, it can be done with content that makes them feel instantly at home and trusting, it can be done with colors that evoke the emotional response you ultimately want your customers to have, and it can be done with images, videos, and sharing options where they can find out what their friends think of your product or service, and inform the rest of their friends of their opinions about you as well.

Your Website is the First Touch

Your website is the first touch you have on your customer; it is extremely important for it to be a positive experience and that it entices your target audience to take that next step and contact you. Ultimately we have websites to initiate a customer relationship and to sell something, whether it is advice or kitchen spoons, we are all in a business to make some kind of money – whether sales or donations for a non-profit to support a meaningful cause, the desired result is the same. As you have probably heard in business, it takes money to make money. Designing your website is not free – but if it is done correctly, it IS worth it.

Think about it – if you wouldn’t stay on your company website for more than 2 minutes, then why would anyone else? You have a lot of competition in the online world, so make yourself stand out. If you need ideas or a quote, check out our web portfolio or call us at 775.322.3663 or 800.233.0239

Relevance in Search Results

When you use a search engine, like Google, you are looking for the match to the keywords you type in that are most relevant. This means they may have a local aspect if you are searching for restaraunts or movie theatres, as well as a date. Most of the time when we search for something, we want the most up to date results. If we are asking about information on movie times, we want them in a chronological order – with the most recent events first.

The Google Algorithm

Google is not only aware of this need, but they have worked out several updates to their algorithm that will impact the results returned based on the data stored about the pages – including dates. So what does this mean and why do you care?

A Common Problem

Here at Integris Marketing, we have several inquiries each week about how to show up at the top of the search engine results page. There are several things that can help, but we found this blog from Entrepreneur.com that covers an online strategy which we often promote ourselves as a continuing solution for keeping your website up to date and in the recent search engine results – a blog.

The Solution

Having a blog ensures that your website will be considered ‘updated’ each time you create and publish a post. This won’t solve all your problems, because it is important to have highly searched and relevant keywords set up in the meta fields for each of your website pages, but that is simple SEO and is fairly static. The solution with blogs is that Google will notice that you are updating and posting new information on your site, and as the blog describes, those that are not posting new content on their website will be left off the search engine results pages more and more in the future.

Additional Benefits of Blogging

This will not only give you the benefits of updating your website each time you post something, but it can also increase the engagement of your audience. You want to gain more customers, but with a good blog you can also build brand loyal customers, who trust you for pertinent information. Blogging can be easy and is often free, depending on the platform you use, so don’t delay – start your blog today!

If you would like customized help with setting up a blog and even finding content for your blog, please contact us today at 775.322.3663 or toll free at 1.800.233.0239!

Bryan discusses ways to use social media for Data Collection and building your database with more information than was ever available to marketers prior to social media platforms – the ease of users or fans or followers to ‘sign-in’ to your site with their platform credentials allows for more information to be had by you on their behaviors, demographics, and interests than ever before.

Lead management is more efficient and better aligned between sales and marketing departments in this new world of social technology. Apps are available (often for free) to compile data and use it to make decisions about buyer interest. Marketing efforts toward specific demographics are also easily analyzed, which leads to faster decision making abilities within your company.

Engagement covers two of the sections Bryan writes about, “Cross-Channel Campaign Management” and Social Marketing. Engagement is definitely a new field for business-to-business marketing, many top B2B companies are still not on board with the idea of using social media for marketing and staunchly express that it only makes sense for B2C businesses.

Hopefully, these businesses will realize they’re mistaken before the early adopters in their industries run away with their share of the market. The truth of the matter is that all businesses can benefit from social media marketing because all businesses are run by PEOPLE and all products and services are bought by PEOPLE – whether for a company purpose or a personal one, people are always the deciding factor.

If you are a B2B company that wants to take the lead in your industry and begin utilizing the amazing social tools of our time for marketing purposes, please let us know!

We love talking about how social media can help you be more successful and how we can help you get there. Check us out on Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin.